Military-Industrial Complex: The Endless Cycle of Profiteering and Chaos

I have frequently discussed how oligarchs have become very wealthy off our capitalist system – specifically the military-industrial complex. They thrive off solving problems in societies and then present solutions for money-making schemes. However, what if there are no problems?

Let’s look closer at the war industry, for instance. Without world conflicts, we wouldn’t need missiles, tanks, or warships. We wouldn’t need warriors (mercenaries), either. If our goal were diplomacy and peace with all other nations, we wouldn’t need a $1 trillion budget for well over one thousand military bases worldwide. Instead, the land could be converted for green technology purposes. We could even sell the land back to the existing country. We could use the money for education or infrastructure projects back in the USA.

Former President and General Dwight D. Eisenhower told us when he retired in 1961 that the United States had a significant problem with a “military-industrial complex” calling the shots behind the scenes. Unfortunately, his warning was generally ignored, so it was allowed to grow and fester. So what is the purpose of military corporations that trade publicly on the New York Stock Exchange or the Standard & Poor’s 500?

Profit maximization should not be a goal in the war industry

Profit maximization, or quarterly profit maximization, should not exist. Isn’t that obvious? How does a defense contractor keep generating quarterly revenues and profits? Selling more weapons to defeat enemies. Therefore, defense contractors need “enemies” and “conflicts.” If they don’t happen naturally, you create them. You don’t seek peace – you create conflict because it’s good for business. Therefore, you create secret agencies within our military-industrial complex to create global disputes. Once you make the conflict, the defense contractors can sell the government solutions. They can even sell them to both sides of the competition.

Even better, you can create propaganda wars via media outlets and “think tanks” (battles over words), causing nations to buy weapons to protect themselves from other countries who may attack them. Therefore, you only have to stoke fears and doubts about other countries. If you fear them, you’ll stockpile weapons if they attack you (Cold Wars).

Can you see how the sole focus of profiteering – seeking profits for the war industry would create conflicts instead of solving them?

The business model creates conflicts so you can make money selling weapons to fight an enemy. This is not a sound business model for society because it doesn’t support humanity – it’s a recipe for destruction. If your goal is selling weapons for profit, there is no reason for peace.

Debt Ceiling Discussions

The budget for the Pentagon is $887 billion and did not come under attack by any political camp during the debt ceiling discussions. The MAGA group made some noise but nothing from the Progressives. Omar said there would be blowback, but let’s see if they vote down the final McCarthy/Biden deal in Congress now. As Judd Legum recently (5/29/2023) wrote:

The compromise, reached Sunday, includes a small decrease in domestic discretionary spending and a record $886 billion for defense, a 3.3% increase over the current year. The money allocated for the defense budget is exactly what Biden requested in the 2024 budget. Notably, about half of that money will go to defense contractors. 

In 2015, the United States spent $585 billion on its military. The United States has added more than $300 billion in military spending in less than a decade. (Had military spending kept pace with inflation, military spending would still be less than $700 billion annually.) Biden has added nearly $150 billion to the military budget since 2021, the last budget approved by President Trump. The budget of the Pentagon now exceeds “the budgets for the next ten largest cabinet agencies combined.”  In 2020, Lockheed Martin received $75 billion in government contracts, more than 1.5 times the budget of the entire State Department. 

https://popular.info/p/there-is-always-more-money-for-defense

You manufacture endless war

As Julian Assange said in 2011, “The role is not to have a successful war in Afghanistan, but to have an endless war.”

This is why Americans and Europeans should be skeptical of the Ukrainian conflict, the recent bombing in Turkey; why our troops are in Northern Syria, the buildup of the war industry in Australia and South Korea, and our disagreements with China over Taiwan.

Our President isn’t the leader of the free world – he’s a spokesperson for the oligarchy that controls American media and politics. He’s a spokesperson for the US Military-Industrial Complex.